Blog: It’s good to know

Artisan 5 was launched on September 24, if memory serves me correctly. That means tomorrow marks six weeks since the first major upgrade to our favourite scrapbooking software in 3 years was released. What a crazy six weeks it has been!!

Being the nerdy kind of person that I am, I’m always pretty excited by new software upgrades! Those techy people just keep thinking of ways to make programs better. I tend to be an ‘early adopter’ – if there’s something new and better, I want it, and I want it now! So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that the long awaited Artisan 5 would be released. My expectations were high, because I’ve loved Artisan, and it’s predecessor StoryBook Creator since the day I first got my hands on the software.

In fact, Artisan 5 is not really an upgrade, it’s much more than that. It’s a whole new program. It looks a lot like Artisan 4, and does everything that Artisan 4 did, but it has been completely re-engineered from the ground up. Please excuse me while I get a bit techy for a minute. The big difference between Artisan 4 and Artisan 5 is that Artisan 4 was pixel-based, whereas Artisan 5 is vector-based. You’re probably thinking “She’s lost me already” but bear with me!

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygons—all of which are based on mathematical expressions—to represent images in computer graphics. Vector graphics are based on vectors (also called paths), which lead through locations called control points or nodes. Each of these points has a definite position on the x and y axes of the work plane and determines the direction of the path; further, each path may be assigned a stroke color, shape, thickness, and fill. Vector graphics can be magnified infinitely without loss of quality, while pixel-based graphics cannot. (Wikipedia)

No, I don’t really understand that either. But what I do know is that Artisan 5 gives us a level of control and flexibility that we never had before. We can create and manipulate and modify photos, papers, shapes, embellishments and text to our hearts’ content! It’s been so much fun exploring the software and learning what it can do. I’m still discovering new functionality and loving putting it to practice on my pages. I’ve been energised to finish a big project I started 2 years ago – I can’t wait to get those photo books in my hands!

As always with new software, there have been some little bumps along the road. Some of them were programming glitches that have mostly been fixed with the latest update. Some were due to our enthusiasm to dive into the new software without really knowing what we were doing! Some of what seemed to be bumps were actually corners – there was a new and different way of achieving the effect we wanted and we had to pause for a moment to learn the new way! I predict smooth sailing from now on (to mix my metaphors!).

Artisan 5 was so hot off the press that we here at pixels2Pages didn’t have the opportunity to create training before the software was released. But you can be sure we are hard at work now producing tips, videos and challenges to introduce you to the wonders of Artisan 5. Click here to see what has been published to date. We even got so excited we released one video early! And there’s lots more coming very soon!

To help everyone get off the ground with Artisan 5 we started a group on Facebook called Artisan 5: Good2Know. It quickly had over 1000 members and is growing daily. It’s been a great resource for helping one another learn all about Artisan 5. Even if you don’t spend much time on Facebook, pop in and browse through the questions and answers and you’re sure to learn something. If you have questions about Artisan 5 that’s probably the best place to ask them. After all, if something is new and different, it’s good to know as much as you can about it! And these days, Facebook is the quickest and easiest way to get information to lots of people.

Here’s a double page spread I shared in the Good2Know group which was about a thousand times easier to do in Artisan 5, because of two things. Being able to work on a double page spread, with both pages “live” and seamlessly flit from one page to the other, even copying photos or elements across just by dragging them is worth the price of the update alone!! And on a page like this, with so many photos to align, the green alignment lines are my best friend in the world!

So keep learning, keep asking questions, and keep practicing with Artisan 5. Just think of all those photos you are bringing to life by getting them off the memory cards and hard drives and into hard copy books to share and enjoy!

PS. If all this is not making any sense to you because you haven’t dived into Artisan 5 yet, it’s time to start.

6 Responses to Blog: It’s good to know

Thank you SO MUCH Shelley! I am a bit of a computer nerd myself, so I am just like you!!! When something new comes out, I jump in with both feet and never look back! Learning new software is both fun and challenging for me. the p2p Facebook page is a wealth of information, knowledge, and help. A support system for all of us as we learn to navigate A5. Looking forward to all of the new tips, challenges, and videos that you pixies will be creating for us!

Now, just to put the “geek factor” into perspective here, my hubby understands vector graphics, and my daughter probably does too. At least I have heard them on more than one occasion tossing the word “vector” around . LOL! All I know is that I am loving A5 –even those things that I still stumble over once in a while. Yup, still having a blast scrappin’ and learnin’!!!

Thanks Shelley. I’ll admit I am struggling at times to find tools. Understanding that this is a new program rather than an update calms me down a bit. There’s no better way than to dive in, so that’s what I’m doing. I’m not normally a “facebooker” but checking out the Artisan 5 Facebook group just might get me there! I am so grateful to all you Pixies for your wonderful help and support.